1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for detecting the presence of computer viruses in data transmissions to networks, and a computer program which when executed detects viruses in the data transmissions to the networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Assignee of the present invention sells a Web Shield™ product for Nokia Appliance V.2 which is a dedicated system optimized with antivirus capability. McAfee® antiviral software is utilized therein to provide complementary protection to existing desktop solutions. The Web Shield™ stops viruses within data packets at a gateway to a network before penetrating the network. As a result, the deficiencies of prior art desktop and server-based antiviral systems, which degrade performance of multipurpose systems, is avoided with the attendant potential for the multipurpose systems being compromised being eliminated. The Web Shield™ provides an additional layer of protection to existing antiviral software resident on PCs or other computers including servers.
The Web Shield stops viruses and malicious code threats, updates the scanning engine automatically with the latest virus definition file, scans inbound and outbound traffic, cleans, rejects or quarantines infected attachments, and has a simple configuration and management.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,414,833, 5,623,600 and 6,275,942 disclose additional antivirus systems.